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Dear Friends,
A lot has happened in these past few days. Following are a few announcements related to these events.
1) First, about the hesder yeshiva saga:
Unfortunately, the Iggud Hayeshivot Rabbis have shown weakness and have forced Rabbi Melamed to sign a document, naively hoping that this would appease Ehud Barak and convince him to allow the Har Bracha yeshiva to stay within the Hesder program.
What made things worse was that the Rabbis’ capitulation came on the same day that the media divulged a shocking IDF document that was leaked and that described how the IDF is preparing for an additional expulsion of Jews and for actually fighting the Jews of Judea and Samaria who might oppose the upcoming destruction of homes. Instead of loudly protesting this document, and demanding from Netanyahu to oust Ehud Barak from the government, the Rabbis continued to try and please Barak.
For the article in Hebrew with pictures of the actual document:
http://www.inn.co.il/News/News.aspx/197996
For shortened article in English summarizing the Hebrew document:
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/176806
Ehud Barak was not impressed with the signed document and has announced that the Hesder arrangement with Har Bracha is over.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/135147
Luckily, many in our camp have not been impressed by the Rabbis’
capitulation either and continue to proudly declare that soldiers have joined the army to fight the Arab enemy and to protect the people and the Land of Israel, and not to carry out leftist policies of expulsion of Jews from our homeland.
Below please find a translation of a petition supporting Rabbi Melamed’s position. In addition, two days ago, soldiers in reserve have hung up a sign near the community of Avnei Hefetz, saying: “We are all students of Har Bracha”.
Ultimately, it is up to us, parents, grandparents and families of soldiers, to pass on a clear message to our boys in the army: You have joined the army to fight the enemy and protect your people and your homeland. We trust you that over the years you have been blessed with a Jewish conscience and thus you will never obey an order that goes against your people and your land.
2) Women in Green continues with the “Build the land of Israel”
project. In the next few days we will give you more details. Meanwhile you can enjoy the following Arutz 7 story about our Women in Green building event in Netzer last week:
Video: Freeze-thawing ceremony in Netzer:
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/135131
Thank you Yoni Kempinski for posting the story. Thank you Rivka Ryback for filming and editing the movie.
3) Update on the struggle for a Jewish Shdema:
In SHDEMA, plastic sheets on the windows and two kerosene heaters taken from Bet Hashalom in Hevron, protected against the cold the tens of participants who came to Shdema on Friday of Hanukka.
Despite the bitter cold, the heavy rain, the mist and the winds, tens of people from around Israel came this past Friday of Hanukka to Shdema.
Rabbi Yisrael Ariel warmed the heart of all with his very clear lecture on the real borders of the Land of Israel. “We are here in Shdema because of the pact of Hashem with his People promising us this land, and not because of it being an abandoned military base, said Rabbi Ariel.
Musician Zvi Zelevsky played the guitar and sang his excellent songs.
The public wanted “encore” and “encore”.
On the walls there was an exhibition of amazing paintings by artist Garik Zilberman on the topic of Hanukka.
The activity for the children was adapted according to these days of “freeze decrees”. Large amounts of Lego were brought to Shdema and the children proudly defied the decrees against building- building from Lego a huge hanukia, the Bet Hamikdash and a new community (the Civil administration did not come to stop the young builders).
The large puddles created by the blessed rain provided the children with an additional fun activity of paper boats floating in the water.
The Friday before, erev Hanuka, historian Dr Arieh Morgenstern and Rabbi Uziya Sharbaf, with the moving introduction by Rabbi Eliyahu
Aviad- spoke about the students of the Vilna Gaon (the GR’A) and their aliya to the land of Israel, which this year we are celebrating as being 200 years later.
Dr. Morgenstern spoke about the historical aspects and Rabbi Sharbaf about the spiritual motives behind their aliya to Israel. The students of the GR’A basically launched a new era by canceling the three oaths and starting activism, long before the first and second aliya.
In the past year and a half, Shdema has become a vibrant Land of Israel Cultural Center to which tens of people are drawn, every Friday morning, adults and youngsters, religious and not religious, all deeply understanding that it is inconceivable to give away Shdema to the Arabs. In order for Shdema to stay in Jewish hands we have to increase the Jewish presence at the site. The Land of Israel Cultural Center in Shdema is unique for it combines, on the spot, the actual struggle for the Land of Israel together with lectures on our right to the Land of Israel, concerts and exhibitions all flavored with erets Israel scents. In these days where our right to our land is being questioned, we must, even more than before, increase the Jewish presence at the site.
This coming Friday at 9:30am, we will hear a lecture in Shdema by Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, Rabbi of Efrat on the topic: “Are we commanded to convert the world?” (lecture will be in Hebrew).
The Committee for a Jewish Shdema- Women in Green For details: Yehudit Katzover 050-7161818 Nadia Matar 050-5500834
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Petition of Hesder Yeshiva Educators in Support of R. Melamed December 17, 2009 by Gil Ronen
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/135066
Support for Rabbi Eliezer Melamed, Head of Har Bracha Yeshiva, is growing. A petition supporting Rabbi Melamed in his ideological showdown with the Minister of Defense, signed by rabbis and educators countrywide, has reached Arutz Sheva.
The letter reads as follows:
An open letter
>From rabbis/educators in the Hesder yeshivas
To the yeshiva students, and youth awaiting conscription
Dear students and youths!
We turn to you at a time in which many in the country are discussing the relationship between Torah commandments and the authority of the military commander.
As educators who send their students to serve in the IDF, we are committed to answer this question in a clear and precise way, as we were taught by our greatest rabbis: Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren of blessed memory, Chief Rabbi Avraham Elkana Shapira of blessed memory, Rabbi Shaul Yisraeli of blessed memory and Rabbi Moshe Tzvi Neria of blessed memory.
We have therefore written the following before you:
May you only be strong!
By the grace of G-d we have been given the gift of living in a time of redemption. A time of ingathering of exiles, of establishment of the State and a Jewish defense force, the Israel Defense Force or IDF. All these constitute a great sanctification of G-d’s name and are steps toward the complete redemption.
To our sorrow, for some time now, the army is also being used for purposes that have nothing to do with defending Israel, and are contrary to the will of Hashem, as it appears in the holy Torah. This situation throws the soldiers of the IDF into a reality in which there is a contradiction between the commandments of G-d and the orders of the military commander.
Therefore, we must teach ourselves and all of Israel, that our belief in Hashem the G-d of Israel and the acceptance of the yoke of His Kingdom, are the source of our devotion in the war to assist Israel.
We need to make it clear to everyone that this loyalty to Hashem stands above all other loyalties, to the government or to the army.
Through this very trouble shall we be delivered.
We will make it clear that while it is true that the army has one commander he, too, must be loyal to the G-d of Israel. This clarification will uplift our army to loyalty to Hashem our G-d, a loyalty through which the true Israeli military consciousness shall be clarified. It is not “my power and the might of my hand that hath gotten me this wealth, but the Lord your God… gives you power to get wealth” (Deuteronomy 8).
The Gemara in Sanhedrin Tractate teaches us that it is a mistake to declare loyalty to a flesh and blood king without noting that our primary loyalty is to the Word of Hashem!
The Yad Ramah [a 12th century Jewish sage from Spain ed.] explains the passage by saying that any declaration of loyalty must be carried out in the fashion of the sons of Gad and Reuven, who told Joshua: “As we obeyed everything that Moses told us so shall we obey you, only let the Lord your G-d be with you as He was with Moses; Every man who goes against your orders will be put to death, may you only be strong.”
They declared loyalty and then lessened it, in case they would be ordered to transgress against the Torah and its commandments.
We teach our students, the Hesder Yeshiva students, to be loyal soldiers out of a commitment to to the Word of Hashem. We are certain that the Name of the Lord which we bear is what strikes fear into the hearts of our enemies, and it is what awards us with salvation and the glory of victory.
Signed,
Rabbi Yigal Abutbul, Rishon LeTzion Hesder Yeshiva Rabbi Ben Tzon Elgazi, Kerem BeYavneh Hesder Yeshiva Rabbi Shmuel Eckstein, Afikei Daat Hesder Yeshiva in Sderot Rabbi Yochanan Ben Zakai, Kiryat Arba Hesder Yeshiva Rabbi Shlomo Binyamin, Lev LaDaat Hesder Yeshiva in Sderot Rabbi Ariel Bareli, Afikei Daat Hesder Yeshiva in Sderot Rabbi Ohad Baruchi, Tverya Hesder Yeshiva Rabbi Eyal Gefen, Rishon LeTzion Hesder Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Gross, Mitzpeh Eshtamoa Hesder Yeshiva Rabbi Amir Garti, Shavei Shomron Hesder Yeshiva Rabbi Erez Vatik, Shavei Shomron Hesder Yeshiva Rabbi Shiloh Tovi, Afikei Daat Hesder Yeshiva, Sderot Rabbi Elisha Yinon, Beit Shean Hesder Yeshiva Rabbi Yaakov Yehudah Yakir, Beir Orot Hesder Yeshiva Rabbi Yitzchak Levi, Kerem BeYavneh Hesder Yeshiva Rabbi Yishai Lange, Beit Orot Hesder Yeshiva Rabbi Yair Frank, Shiloh Hesder Yeshiva Rabbi Nachum Tzafri, Elon Moreh Hesder Yeshiva Rabbi Noam Konigsberg, Shaalabim Hesder Yeshiva Rabi Eliyahu Shachor, Elon Moreh Hesder Yeshiva Rabbi Aryeh Stern, Kerem BeYavneh Hesder Yeshiva Rabbi Shalom Shmidt, Ramat Gan Hesder Yeshiva Rabbi Yedidya Shimon, Rishon LeTzion Hesder Yeshiva
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